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Weather Phenomena On All Scales

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Lawrence Neumann
Meteorology Final Project: Weather Phenomena on All Scales

Use the principles of heat transport to explain why (for the same latitude) ocean temperatures heat and cool by only 2-4 degrees Celsius per day, while desert temperatures may change by more than 20 degrees Celsius per day. The differences in temperature change per day between desert and ocean temperatures can be attributed to differences in heat conductivity and specific heat capacity of sand and water. Energy is exchanged between the surface of the earth and the air immediately above the surface of the earth through conduction. The type of surface and properties of the surface can heavily influence the surface air temperature. Both desert and open-ocean will …show more content…

The energy required for evaporation or condensation reduces the amount of heat energy being exchanged with the air and thus reduces the temperature extremes. Water is a much better conductor of heat than sand, which leads to more energy from solar radiation being distributed throughout large depths of water in the ocean. Energy is further distributed throughout the ocean by the constant mixing and movement of liquid water. This distribution of heat energy leads to little energy being transferred back to the surface atmosphere. Sand is a poor conductor of heat, so heat does not distribute throughout sand particles beneath the surface and sand does not mix in the way water in the ocean does. Sand more quickly absorbs solar radiation and then transfers this heat to the surface atmosphere, which causes the surface atmosphere to have larger temperature variances. Water has properties, high relative specific heat and high relative thermal conductivity, that allow it to absorb much more solar radiation than sand. Because water absorbs much more of this heat energy it does not transfer as much heat to air directly above it through conduction as sand does. This means that the temperature of the surface temperature air over the ocean will not vary as much as the surface temperature of the air over a desert.

Describe the diurnal temperature cycle, with reference to the typical daily radiation budget, with the time of day that we would

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